This invention relates to a thickening composition comprising a xe2x80x9cco-processedxe2x80x9d combination of modified starch and flour. In addition, the invention relates to the process for providing such xe2x80x9cready-for-usexe2x80x9d compositions and the improved food products prepared from the co-processed compositions.
The use of starches or flours as thickening agents has long been known in the art. Common uses of the starches and/or flours include the thickening of soup mixes or gravies to give body to the product. Starches have also been used as thickeners in processed products in the food industries.
The use of starches, both unmodified and modified, in thickening agents presents long recognized problems, particularly for professionals in the food service industry. Unmodified starch-containing thickeners must be precooked before being used to increase the viscosity of cold or precooked foods. However, the use of a precooked, unmodified starch often imparts an undesirable stringiness to the texture of the food. While the addition of a modified starch can confer a satisfactory texture to cold or precooked foods, these foods do not provide the desirable taste and appearance of foods prepared from thickeners containing modified starches which have been precooked with flour. This is particularly true of foods such as gravies and soups that rely upon the traditional taste and opacity conveyed by an industry standard thickener containing a cooked flour and/or modified starch.
Further, in the food service industry it is often necessary to maintain foods at high temperatures over relatively long periods of time. This is particularly true of thickener-containing foods such as gravies and soups. However, under these conditions an unmodified starch thickener is often unable to maintain a desirable viscosity. Moreover, after cooking and cooling foods containing an unmodified starch thickener, there is often an undesirable separation of fat or absorbed water from a previously homogeneous mix or emulsion. In addition, undesirable weeping and syneresis may occur, particularly after cold storage or freezing and thawing.
While thickeners employing modified starches do not possess these process tolerance limitations inherent to unmodified starches and/or flours, thickeners prepared from modified starches do not have the desirable cooked flour taste and appearance of thickeners prepared from unmodified starches and/or flours. As a result, the use of modified starch thickeners in foods often imparts a xe2x80x9csyntheticxe2x80x9d appearance as the foods are more translucent and have a glossy shine compared to foods prepared from unmodified starch and/or flour thickeners.
Attempts to overcome the deficiencies of the unmodified starches by using a thickening mixture containing a combination of pregelatinized wheat flour, and/or starch (which may be modified), an edible gum and sodium stearyl fumarate has been reported in U.S. Pat. No. 3,554,764. However, this process requires the undesirable addition of expensive chemicals and requires pregelatinization of the wheat flour component.
According, there is an ongoing need to provide a thickener appropriate for use in the food service industry which combines the desirable properties of a modified starch while imparting the traditional appearance and taste of industry standard thickeners prepared from unmodified starches and flour.
This invention relates to a thickening composition comprising a xe2x80x9cco-processedxe2x80x9d combination of modified starch and flour. In addition, the invention relates to the process for providing such xe2x80x9cready-for-usexe2x80x9d compositions and the improved food products prepared from the co-processed compositions.
The process comprises blending at least one modified starch, particularly a stabilized and cross-linked or thermally-inhibited starch, with at least one flour, particularly wheat flour, and co-processing the blend. The resultant co-processed compositions may advantageously be used as xe2x80x9cready-for-usexe2x80x9d thickeners having superior properties to thickeners prepared with modified or unmodified starches.
The foods prepared from these superior thickeners have improved appearance, taste, process tolerance, emulsification, cold and hot temperature stability and instant viscosity properties compared to foods containing food service industry standard thickeners prepared from modified or unmodified starches.